132 



and with its demise died the hope that atomic energy could be put 

 under international ownership and control. An analysis of this inter- 

 action of atomic energy and American diplomacy is to be found in 

 a companion study of the Congressional Research Service : Tht Baruch 

 Phi n : U.S. Diplomacy Enters the Nuclear Age. 2 



The subsequent interaction between U.S. diplomacy and nuclear 

 power is the subject of the present study. Since the first use of nuclear 

 weapons terminated the war with Japan in 1945, U.S. diplomacy and 

 nuclear energy have been closely and continually intertwined. The re- 

 lationships have changed over the years from the early postwar period 

 when the United States possessed the great military advantage of the 

 atom bomb to back its foreign policy and diplomacy to the situation 

 today when the possession of enormously destructive nuclear arma- 

 ments by the superpowers of the world has brought a period of nu- 

 clear stalemate. While large-scale armed conflict between major nations 

 has not occurred since 1945, the many smaller wars and conflicts have 

 prevented the postwar years from being an era of peace. 



The starting point for this examination of American diplomacy and 

 commercial nuclear power for Europe is President Eisenhower's 

 Atoms for Peace Plan of 1953. This initiative, together with the sub- 

 sequent rewriting of the Atomic Energy Act in 1954, opened the way 

 to accelerated development of commercial nuclear power in the United 

 States, and to greater technical assistance to, and cooperation with, 

 other countries and with international organizations in nuclear power. 

 Against this background, the bilateral technical assistance arrange- 

 ments of the United States are described and also the U.S. relations 

 with the three international organizations set up to foster use of nu- 

 clear power in the free world: the International Atomic Energy 

 Agency, Euratom, and the Nuclear Energy Agency. Next follows in- 

 formation on U.S. policy and programs for supplying nuclear fuel to 

 Europe. The next-to-last section deals with the Xonprolifcration 

 Treaty, and the safeguards which it would impose on civil use of 

 nuclear fuel materials in Europe. The study concludes with a reca- 

 pitulation of the issues and a look to the future. 



Commercial nuclear power in Europe presents an instructive case of 

 major interaction between technology and foreign policy for two rea- 

 sons. First, the strengthening of Europe during and since the era of 

 the cold war has been a keystone of U.S. foreign policy; Second. 

 Europe is the only area other than North America where commercial 

 development of nuclear power has attained any prominence. Further- 

 more, during the late L950's the economics oi the European energy 

 market were more attractive for the early demonstration and appli 

 cation of commercial nuclear power than were those of the United 

 States with its then abundant and cheap energy supplies of coal, oil, 

 and natural gas. 



No attention is given in this report to commercial nuclear power 

 in the developing nations of the world because the technology for 



nuclear power has not evolved in this direction. Nuclear power tech- 

 nology so far has been characterized by high capital costs, rcquire- 



* Lenelce N. Wu. The Baruch Plan: U.S. Diplomacy Enters the Xuclcar Age, A report 

 prepared fur the Subcommittee mi National Security Policy and Scientific Developments of 

 tiir House Committee mi Foreign Affairs in the Foreign Affairs Division, Congressional 

 Research Service, Library of Congress (Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing 

 Office, 1972), 67 p. 



